Social Media is for everyone; young and fearless

Social Media Strategy is no longer an option, it is a necessity

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The social media revolution has begun. It has forced businesses to think about how we can get our content out to the community and create conversations around it, and in the process, spend less advertising dollars on declining traditional media like television, radio and print. It is human nature to share things we like and connect with each other.

The advent of social media has made this easier for all of us, helping to take word-of-mouth marketing to a new level, simply with the click of a button.

Social Media 247 is a useful and timely guide for many organisations looking to implement or refine their social media strategy. No matter what the size of your current business or organisation, you too can follow the practical tips and advices outlined in the various sections of this book to reap the rewards.

Our FAQs

If I say social media does not cost of anything, I will be lying. Although most of the platforms are free, you do need to spend quality time for using those platforms effectively. So there is investment of time – which is not free :). There are paid options available like pay-per-click ads, promoted tweets etc, but you can very effectively use the platforms without spending money on those – just with your creativity. Make sure to keep your audience interested in being connected with you, value their connection and offer them something worth their attachment with you, get them involved in your brand – emotionally as well as through some gestures like discounts, exclusive offers etc.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140514072647-3100466-your-10-most-common-social-media-questions-answered

Absolutely - Just that you need to use it in a different way. With B2B, use social media to build thought leadership, gather reviews and opinions and educate people. Don’t make the mistake of using social media as any other marketing campaign. Focus on two-way dialogue with your audience rather than one-way messaging. Be patient and you are sure to go long way with this.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140514072647-3100466-your-10-most-common-social-media-questions-answered

Both the types of ads have shown great results for businesses. Fundamentally, although both work on the principles of Pay-Per-Click or Pay as Per Impressions, there is a slight difference. Google ads are more keyword driven. You choose the keywords for which you would like to show your ad, put a bid you are willing to pay and you are done. In Facebook, you can choose to show your ads based on interests like photography, reading, writing etc. Essentially you show your ads to people who you think would be ‘relate’ with your ads better.
Secondly, you need to remember that there is always intent on Google. When someone does a search on Google, he/she has come there with some intention (of either making a decision, making a purchase, research etc). On Facebook, mostly people are for networking and connecting with friends. So the intent is not explicitly there.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140514072647-3100466-your-10-most-common-social-media-questions-answered

What would you answer if you are asked “Is T-Shirt more appropriate or a formal shirt?” Well, you would say “depends on the occasion” right? Now apply the same principle. Whether Facebook is better or Twitter clearly depends on your objective, purpose, your target market and your user group. Both the platforms have their own merits, purpose, usage guidelines and benefits. You need to understand your marketing and communication objective and then choose an appropriate platform. You need to also consider that people’s behavior on Twitter is different than on Facebook. Twitter timeline moves faster than Facebook so you really need to post almost like real-time updates on Twitter. It provides the kind of immediacy. Whereas; on Facebook, you have better opportunity to have more in-depth conversation around a topic. Picture sharing is more appreciated on Facebook than Twitter. So I would say that if at all you have to choose, apply a simple test: Choose a platform where your audience spends more time :-)
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140514072647-3100466-your-10-most-common-social-media-questions-answered

This is the MOST commonly asked question. Many businesses think that they don’t really need this new media. After all they are just doing fine without it so far. But then I ask them: aren't you worried that you might miss on some new lead generation methods? You might miss on some very valuable customer connection and engagement opportunity? When brands worldwide – right from Fortune 500 to the small cafes around the corner are benefiting from it, aren't you willing to give it a thought that there might be some merit in it?
Getting involved in social media allows you to be more engaged with your current and potential clients. The word “transparency” was probably most cliché word used to describe social media some 3-4 years ago, but it’s very true. Social media allows companies to have a voice and to show the public that your company is willing to listen and gather unsolicited feedback. Social media also allows your brand to provide that extra customer service option outside of the traditional email and phone media.
So while you need to definitely look into if your target audience is on social media or not, you should not reject is outright without giving it a thought.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140514072647-3100466-your-10-most-common-social-media-questions-answered

Slightly Longer Answer: There isn’t an easy answer to this question. First of all, it’s best to ask yourself why you want to blog at all! What are you trying to achieve? Once you answer this, you’ll need to work out how long and in-depth your posts will be and how long it will take you to write them. The frequency of your social media posts is completely different and depends on the platform.

This sounds like a simple question, but it really isn’t. You need to work out what frequency will work for you. Let’s tackle blogging first. Have you asked yourself what you are wishing to achieve through your blog? Is it for fun? If so, I suppose it doesn’t matter – just blog when you feel like it. Is it to market your business, have you formed a strategy and what you want to achieve through your blog? Who are you trying to target?
We are all drowning in a sea of content. So much content is being created or re-purposed over day. With this in mind, you need to create quality content – content that resonates with people and creates a buzz. You may be able to create short quality content on a very regular basis – that’s great! You may be very good at creating highly detailed and in-depth articles on a much less regular basis- that’s great too! You have to find a schedule that works for you and your business. Remember too, that there are different types of content. If writing articles isn’t your thing or the thing of your potential customers, then try other formats such as videos, slideshows, images or podcasts.
Working out how often you post on your social media channels is going to be different again. Each network has to be treated differently. Twitter is fast moving, and each tweet has a very short half life. Back in 2012, Peter Bray wrote a fascinating article on the average lifespan of a Tweet entitled When Is My Tweet’s Prime of Life? (published on the Moz Blog). He discovered that each tweet had a prime time of visibility for 18 minutes! And this was back in 2012, so that number is likely to have decreased. With that in mind, it’s best to publish much more regularly on Twitter so that your Tweets are seen to different audiences throughout the day. There are plenty of tools to help you schedule, track, analyse and monitor- read 20+ Tools that willl turn you into a Twitter Power User.
As for LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook, it’s best to post far less regularly- and concentrate on quality content. Facebook ranks all posts using its EdgeRank algorithm and you’ll get penalised if you are posting too regularly content that people aren’t engaging with. If you want to increase your visibility and reach on Facebook, then a recent article on the Agora Pulse blog will be your friend – 5 Ways to Get More Organic Reach for Your Facebook Posts. Nicholas Grizzell gives some great advice such as posting at non-peak times, be timely, posting more often, embedding your posts and more.
Source – http://iag.me/socialmedia/6-answers-common-social-media-questions/

Quick Answer: It’s not about followers- it’s about community and relationships
Slightly Longer Answer: Don’t just chase followers. If you do, you could end up with lots of irrelevant followers who never engage with you. Instead seek to build a community of people who want to engage with you.
It might sound controversial, but the number of followers you have isn’t everything! It can make you look good if you have loads of followers, but at the end of the day, you need to make sure you are getting followers who are relevant to you. Instead of asking the question on how to increase your followers, it’s better to ask how to build your community on Twitter. It’s far better to have a small number of engaged followers who are interested in what you are saying and interact with you regularly. Having 50,000 followers or fans might make you feel important, but is that your ultimate goal? How about building existing relationships, or creating new ones? How about increasing sales? Surely those are better goals to achieve?
If you’re interested in building up your community and building your relationships, then there is a better question to answer. Here are some tips:

Use a tool such as twtrland* to help you find influencers in your area. Follow the people your influencers/competitors follow – Once you find the people your competitors or influencers follow, you can start to follow them. The people they follow are likely to be the ones you’d like to follow.

Use the tool Commun.it* – it’s a social media relationship tool which helps you find and build your community on Twitter.

Regular quality posts – make sure you are consistently posting quality and relevant content- the kind of stuff that the people you want to follow you will like.
Comment/mention/get involved – get involved with your community and reply to the tweets of the people in your community. It’s a way to build relationships and nobody likes a timeline of one way tweets.

Say more than thank you– if someone retweets you or shares your stuff, don’t just say “thank you” – turn the situation in to an opportunity.

Use relevant hashtags – a lot of people use Twitter search or follow a particular hashtag. You’ll extend your reach significantly if you do this. Use a tool such as Ritetag
Be a giver and not just a taker- be authentically helpful.

Quick Answer: No
Slightly Longer Answer: Technically you shouldn’t send connection requests to people you don’t know, but there are exceptions to this rule. It’s up to you whether you want to accept connection requests from people you don’t know- there are some advantages and disadvantages in this.
It’s a common question, and it comes down to the fact that LinkedIn is very different to other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is a professional network and aimed primarily at business connections. To connect with someone on LinkedIn, you both need to agree to this connection i.e. it’s a reciprocal 2-way connection – just like Facebook friends.
The question definitely divides the marketing community, and you’ll see passionate arguments on both sides! My view is that it is down to your marketing strategy. Technically sending a connection request to someone you don’t know is against the LinkedIn User Agreement. If someone receives a connection request from someone they don’t know they can respond by checking “I don’t know this person”. LinkedIn monitors the amount of “I don’t know”s and once you reach a certain amount, you can get a warning and potentially your account could be restricted. You can read more on this LinkedIn company page entitled Close to Being Restricted.
My strategy is to only send and receive connection requests to/from people I know in some way. That could mean I know them in person, or I could have exchanged emails or had a conversation on another network such as Twitter. I know some people advocate growing your network as large as possible. Despite that going against LinkedIn’s terms, I can kind of see the logic in that strategy, but it doesn’t work for me. Can you vouch for all your connections? What if someone asks how you know one of your connections? That happened to me once, and because I had just accepted this person (someone that I didn’t really know) I wasn’t able to say anything about them. Don’t chase numbers- chase real connections and real relationships!
Having said that, there are exceptions to this rule. Social media is mainly down to building relationships. Why should LinkedIn be any different? If you don’t know the person have a look at their profile and see whether it would be helpful to connect to them – if they are someone relevant and influential. If you really don’t know them, then reply personally to start with a conversation. Many do reply and we get to know each other from then on. Unfortunately some never reply and it was fairly obvious that they weren’t interested in connecting with me as such, but just chasing numbers.
Source - http://iag.me/socialmedia/6-answers-common-social-media-questions/

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Social Media 247 Facebook Page

"Andrew is a whirlwind of energy knowledge and charm. He understands all aspects of how people tick both online and offline and is also one of the most generous natured people in the people business. If you do any business in Singapore (actually - make that Asia), get in touch with Andrew. He's connected, he's funny and he gets results. Period."

- Dave Crane -

"I would recommend Andrew as a very knowledgeable and engaging speaker on the topic of social media. We were lucky enough to have Andrew present a session on B2B social media at our team's strategic planning session. Andrew was very professional in his approach and easy to work with. He was able to prepare a presentation that was tailored to suit the needs of our team - and the profile of our business - within a very short time frame.

- Alison Turner -

"Your presence on Social Media is by far the most important investment that you can make for your business no matter how big or how small it is. Andrew Chow of Ideamart Pte Ltd knows his stuff. Two simple tweaks to a Facebook campaign and my results exploded - 700%. I spent very little to get those results compared to a traditional magazine ad campaign that had far less reach, produced zero tangible results and required a lot more money. Thanks Andrew for your guidance!"

- Lindley Craig -

"Andrew is a charismatic and inspirational leader in the Singapore Entrepreneurs scene. A passionate brand strategist, brimming with creativity, he shares his insight and expertise generously. I am extremely privileged to know Andrew and look forward to forging a successful and long term collaborative partnership with him and his organisation."

- Gina Romero -

"I was very fortunate to have attended the "Leveraging on Social Media" course conducted by Andrew for the pioneer class of OCBC employees. Although I consider myself relatively well-informed about social media, Andrew still managed to creatively share with us much more benefits, knowledge, road-maps and tools to fully utilize the social media platform as a form of customer engagement and strategic branding. Andrew was essentially, - very knowledgeable in the topic of social media - very confident in delivering his messages - great with sharing stories from his social media experiences - very approachable in answering questions. Highly recommended coach. Keep up the good work, Andrew!"

- Philip Teo Hong Yi -

"There are many who claim to be a “social media guru” but you will only recognize the “real deal” once you come across, Andrew Chow. Enrolled in the Professional Workshop in Digital Marketing at the Inquirer Academy, I had the pleasure of being exposed to Andrew’s expertise in various topics, hands-on teaching method and charm as a speaker. A master in his craft, Andrew knew what topics we were interested in knowing, delivering the learning to us in the most interesting way possible – I would know, he caught and kept my attention for three days straight! Unlike other workshops that centered on what the speaker has done, Andrew eagerly shared with us the techniques he uses and gave us an “on-the-spot” solution.

- Janelle Ong -

Andrew has brilliant hold over Social Media Marketing strategies. Through his engaging lectures he shared great Social Media Marketing tips that can be used for professional enhancement as well as business growth. In the present day when Social Media concepts are still in nascent stage and there is no concrete theory on the subject, Andrew has content and ideas that teach us how to use social media platforms in a meaningful way. Andrew is a great mentor as he has meaningful advice for each of his students.

- Reecha Kumar -

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Andrew during the M.A.D.Academy workshop where he was working
as lecturer teaching social media and digital marketing. Above all, I was impressed with Andrew's ability
to engage with marketers, sharing his great knowledge and experience on social media. And, of course, his
sparkling personality.